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Wedding season is over. The kids are back in school. The lake is getting too cold to swim in.

Welcome back to the longest election campaign in 140 years.

While Canadians were vacationing, the economy slid into a technical recession, global stock markets tanked and the prime ministerial candidates tried to sell us on vague plans to drag the country out of the worst slump since the 2008-2009 recession.

There have been some big ticket promises, but few details about how they’ll be funded.

All three parties would cut small business taxes from 11 per cent to 9 per cent and relax the rules for minimum withdrawals for Registered Retirement Income Funds.

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However, there’s little agreement beyond that. Liberals and NDP would both cancel key components of the Conservative platform – raising the TFSA contribution limit from $5,500 to $10,000 and their income-splitting for families in order to fund their own economic priorities. The opposition parties would also cancel the Conservative plan to raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security benefits to 67 from current 65.

With many Canadians paying little attention, leaders have plenty of wiggle room to reframe or dig in to positions they’ve carved out over the summer, says Rodney Haddow, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s message has centered on balancing the budget, a calculation made to attract those who worry about the party’s history of spending, Haddow said.

Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau has presented the riskiest strategy by saying he’d be willing to endure a few years of deficits to invest in big budget spending projects to stimulate economic growth, Haddow said.

“But he’s never really paid for going out on a limb on issues,” Haddow said, citing Trudeau’s controversial stance on marijuana.

Stephen Harper spent much of the summer on the economic defensive. If Harper cannot convince voters the other two options are worse, things could turn out poorly for the leader. Voters tend to blame the government when the economy is ailing, Haddow said.

The focus on deficits has been helpful in getting voters to think about what in some ways “is the biggest, broadest economic issue that there is out there,” he said.

“I just don’t know that the debate is playing out in a way that’s all that informative.”

With just over a month to go in the campaign and with more voters tuned back in, Haddow hopes the level of debate and detail will improve.

Here’s the rundown:

Conservatives: The Tories told Canadians their stay-the-course approach was preferable to two parties that can’t be trusted with the nation’s finances. They laid low as the NDP positioned themselvses as the party of fiscal restraint against Liberal promises to spend on stimulus.

Key Promises:

Expanded Universal Child Care Benefit: The bulked up credit kicked in this summer and raised the amount doled out for a child under six to $160 a month. It now includes a payment of $60 a month for children between the ages of 6 and 17.

<bullet> Family income splitting: The plan allows one spouse in a family with children under the age of 18 to transfer up to $50,000 of taxable income to their lower-income spouse, enabling the higher earner avoid a higher tax bracket.

Help for first-time homebuyers: The Conservatives have promised to expand the Home Buyers’ Plan by increasing the amount first-time home buyers can withdraw tax-free from the registered retirement savings plans to $35,000 from $25,000 to purchase a home.

Encourage home renovations: The Conservatives plan to create a new, permanent Home Renovation Tax Credit for home renovation expenses between $1,000 and $5,000 so young Canadians can renovate their homes.

Encourage saving: Budget 2015 included an increase to $10,000 a year in the amount Canadians can contribute to their Tax Free Savings Accounts.

Help low-income families with education: The Tories will double the federal grants to low- and middle-income families saving for their kids’ post-secondary education with a $100 to $200 contribution to RESPs.

Liberals: The Liberals took a risk declaring they’d spend to stimulate the economy with investments in infrastructure projects, acknowledging it would put the economy into a deficit. In doing so, leader Justin Trudeau made himself vulnerable to accusations he lacks money management skills and juxtaposed himself against the hard-line NDP anti-deficit stance.

Key Promises:

Infrastructure spending: The Liberals say their plan to spend an additional $60 billion on public transit, social and green infrastructure in the next decade would result deficits of up to $10-billion a year over the next three years.

Middle class tax cuts: Liberals say every Canadian with taxable income between $44,700 and $89,401 per year will see their income tax rate fall to 20.5 per cent from 22 per cent.

Increase taxes on the wealthy: The wealthiest one per cent will pay more through the introduction of a new tax bracket of 33 per cent for annual incomes over $200,000.

Bigger Canada Child Benefit: The Liberal plan will combine Conservatives’ family allowance program and other federal assistance programs. They promise it will be a bigger, fair, tax-free, automatic monthly cheque for all families, with children, that have annual household incomes below $150,000.

Spark the green economy: Liberals promise to spend $200 million a year to develop clean technologies in forestry, fisheries, mining, energy and farming.

EI Reforms: Trudeau would reduce waiting time for employment insurance benefits, end the 910-hour eligibility requirement, cut premiums and allow for more flexible parental leaves.

New Democratic Party: The NDP surprised some observers with its staunch opposition to running any deficit even if the economy gets worse. The party has taken an even harder stance against stimulus spending than Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Mulcair has dug in his heels amid questions about how their promises would be funded.

Key Promises:

National child care plan: One of the NDP’s biggest-ticket expenses is the introduction of a universal child care program that will create or sustain one million affordable child care spaces. They plan to create a comprehensive $15-a –day program.

Manufacturing incentives: Mulcair pledges to introduce a $40 million tax credit for manufacturers that invest in innovation. He would extend for two years the accelerated capital cost allowance for machinery and equipment.

$15 minimum wage: The NDP would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The move would apply to 100,000 federally-regulated workers.

<bullet> Corporations pay more: Raise corporate income tax rates by an unspecified amount from the current 15 per cent in order to help pay for the national child care program and other promises.

Tax breaks for innovation: The NDP would create an innovation tax credit for businesses that invest in machinery, equipment or property used for research and development.

Green Party: The Green Party has been fighting for headlines this summer ahead of the release of its official party platform later this week. Leader Elizabeth May landed some solid economic punches during the first leaders’ debate. She is staunchly against austerity measures, saying running deficits to spark an economy is sensible.

Green infrastructure: May says she would invest in renewable energy, expanding passenger rail and retrofit buildings for energy efficiency as well as infrastructure improvements.

No taxes for low-income earners: May would abolish personal taxes for incomes below $20,000 through a tax shift that would see bring in carbon pricing to make polluters pay.

End foreign investor protection: May wants Canada to withdraw from international trade deals that allow foreign companies to sue governments in secret.

Carbon fee and dividend: The Greens would introduce a “polluter pays” tax program, which would put a price on carbon and see the money put back into consumers’ wallets.

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